The Omega Project
by ZenPsyko
Summary: Originally titled "My 204th Birthday." A 21st century man and his brother were subjects of an experimental stasis program by a mysterious organization and awasken during the time of Commander Shepard and his crew were gathering an army to fight the Reapers. How will he adjust knowing that almost everyone he knows is dead?
1. Chapter 1

"Alright guys, are we all set to go." Says a man in a dark suit behind a secured console.

"Yeah." I replied, "I'm about as ready as I'll ever be."

My brother responded similarly, "same here."

"Alright just step into the pods and we'll get you all hooked up."

We stepped step into the pods and I received an injection of a very powerful anesthetic. I was nervous, I didn't know when they were gonna wake us up all I know is that when they did all the people in this room, our family, our loved ones, everyone we know aside from us would all be long dead. After a few minutes, the anesthetic started to set hit me hard as shit, the techs could see it on there face. I was drifting in and out, I could kind of make out what the head of the project was saying.

"Commencing stasis program test Omega. Time and date July 21, 2012. Subjects Seth Anders, age 24 and Connor Anders, age 23. Subjects are in cryo pods and have undergone preliminary stasis prep. Waiting for full anesthetic effect before proceeding any further." At least that's what I remember as far as I know. The last thing I remember seeing before I finally drifted off was the emblem on the wall, a long black diamond flanked by two yellow lines. I thought to myself before it all went black, "What the hell did you get yourself into, Seth?" And then….nothing.

And as if I had just fallen asleep as I normally did, you know without the anesthetic and the deep freezing, I woke up. My brothers pod was already empty. I could hear the sound of explosions and gunfire in the background, but something sounded different about it. I couldn't figure out what. I was wondering what the hell was going on, so I went off to find out. I came across a window, and man was I shocked, the Los Angeles skyline that I saw before I was frozen was replaced by a massive black void with what looked like a massive gas-giant planet. Then it hit me…I'M ON A FUCKING SPACE STATION! I didn't have much time to have it sink in, because then an explosion blew the door open and I saw this weird hunchback looking creature come through. It had black skin four eyes, at least I think those were eyes and it's mouth was open, as if that wasn't strange enough it looked like it was half mechanical-half biological, and everything was glowing. I didn't have to wait too long to assume it wasn't friendly, so I did what any other guy would do, I broke the hell out of there. I ran into a hall when I found a dead body that had the same logo on his armor that I saw before I went to sleep. Lucky for me there was a gun next to it. It looked like a pistol, but it seemed pretty big for one, but hey, a weapon's a weapon.

I ran all around that station until I saw some people looking like they we're fighting those things. I decided to follow them, they might have known a way out.

"Who the hell is he?"

"I don't fucking know, for all I know he could be one of them."

"Do I look like one of those freaks to you? My gun's pointing at them and from the looks of things you know a way out of here." I told him.

"How do you not know where the hell you're going?" one of them said to me.

"Does it look like I have the time to explain right now?"

"Alright just stick with us, after that you better give us some damn answers"

"As long as I get out of here in one piece." I said as I was shooting more of those freaks.

"No guarantees on that one."

As if through some miracle we reached some sort of craft, It was safe to assume it was the one they used to get here. I didn't know what the hell just went on, but I had a pretty good idea. These guys must be some sort of military judging by what looked like the armor they were wearing. One of them wore a black one with a red stripe going down the right arm. I saw "N7" on the chest plate. The other was wearing a one that was blue and had some sort of symbol that look like the letter A on the chest straddling a picture of Earth. The other wore a similar blue suit of armor, but it was larger on the back and the helmet was longer. All three of them were wearing helmets so I couldn't see there faces.

Then the all took off their helmets, first the one in black, then the one in blue closest to me. "Good their human" I though to myself….then the other one followed suit. My eyes widened to the size of goddamn dinner plates at the site of him…her…it…whatever it was.

"Y-you….you're…" I said, shocked.

"Not human, yeah, I get that a lot."

"What's the matter, never seen a Turian before?" said the human in blue.

"I haven't even HEARD of a Turian before!" I replied.

"Relax Kaiden, let's get him back to the Normandy, give him some time before we start probing him with questions." Said the one in black.

"Sure thing commander."

After about ten minutes or so, we stopped. I heard hissing and mechanical whirring, then I heard a door slamming shut. Then the door on the shuttle opened and I was onboard what this "Commander" calls the Normandy. Took me a while to have everything sink in. But they brought me up into the elevator onto another deck of the ship marked "crew deck." They then brought me to what was designated the "Med bay" where I found a bed and just laid there for a few minutes. Luckily there was another person in the room I could talk to. An older lady by the looks of things, she must've been the ship's doctor.

"Ma'am, I really don't mean to be rude. But could you please explain to me what the hell is going on here?"

"That's not the most polite introduction, but I guess I'll oblige. I am Dr. Chakwas and you are on board the SSV Normandy in the medical bay. Judging from what I've heard you've been found on a Cerberus space station that our away team was on. They got wind of some sort of experiment they were performing and went to investigate."

I just sat there with a blank look on my face. Now that was a lot to take in. I regained my focus as best I could. "Alright, now the big question. What's the date?"

She looked at me, puzzled that I should ask such a question. "August 15th, 2185"

Great another shock to my system. I've been in that tube, a human popsicle, for 173 years. "Excuse me," I replied before falling backwards on the bed I was sitting on.


	2. Chapter 2

I just got done having a chat with Commander Sheppard in the med bay. I told him everything, that I was from the 21st century and after putting two and two together, I was the experiment they were investigating. Well not me, but the stasis program codenamed "the Omega Project." They gave me a spare uniform that through some miracle managed to fit me. I spent the next few days crashing in the med bay and in the AI core behind it whenever the med bay was being used. I learned a lot from Dr. Chakwas about how much things have changed and how we discovered this "Mass Effect" technology on mars thirty years ago. She also told me about this race called the Protheans that were wiped out 50,000 years ago. I asked her if that's what they we're investigating, but she didn't answer it. She said that it was something that I wasn't ready to hear yet seeing as how I, only a few days ago, got out of stasis.

I spent the next few days wandering around the ship. I met some of the crew, they seemed like some cool people. Yesterday, I went into the forward battery and I saw Garrus working on what looked like the main gun of the ship. He seemed busy, so I figured I could help, in what little way I could.

"Hey, you need any help?"

"No, I have this under control, but thanks for asking anyway, Seth."

"Alright. So…Turian, huh?"

"Yeah." He said with his face still buried in the console.

"How'd you end up with…that" I said as I waved my hand over the right half of my face.

"Rocket."

"No shit"

"I shit you not. Happened on Omega a few months ago, I was keeping the mercenaries in line on omega when Shepard came and offered to help. We killed a good amount of them. Until a Blue Sun gunship entered that shitstorm. We managed to take it down, but it launched a rocket into the room, Shepard managed to escape, but it knocked me unconscious. I was losing a lot of blood, when I woke up I was on the Normandy med bay. The rest is history."

"You're either really tough, or just plain lucky."

"I like to think of it as both."

I noticed the workbench on the behind me. On it, was an impressive looking sniper rifle, solid white with a long, black barrel and scope. I figured that's what he did on away missions, seeing as how he was picking off what they call "Cannibals," the ones coming at us from a distance.

"Man, you and my brother would get along like that."

"Why do you say that?"

"You and him are a lot alike, you're both smartasses, both have done things you'll regret, and you both have a hard on for sniper rifles."

"Really now? He any good?"

"Only in games, he always picked the sniper class. He only fired a real rifle once, but he managed to impress the dude who owned it." I started to head to the door. "You sure you don't need any help?"

He let loose what I think was a chuckle by the sound of it. "Yeah I'm pretty sure. Gun like this is a walk in the park for me."

"Alright, then. I'll let you get back to work, nice talking with you Garrus."

"Likewise"

I left the battery and toured the rest of the crew deck. Grabbed a bite from the mess hall, talked to a few more of the crew members. Then I saw commander Shepard walk out of the elevator, into the door on the other side of the room. He didn't say anything, he just walked in. I wanted to find out, but I figured it wasn't any of my business. I headed towards the elevator, across from it I saw a wall with a bunch of names written on it.

"This wall is a list of the people who died on our last mission and the ones who died in the attack of the original Normandy. This wall commemorates their sacrifice as well as their memory." Said a female sounding voice. She was wearing a purple colored suit and what looked like a breather helmet.

"Kinda like the Vietnam Wall in D-WHOA!" My scream startled the rest of the crew down here. I didn't know there was another alien aboard this ship. "Who or what are you?"

"Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, but everyone here just calls me Tali. I'm a member of the Admiralty Board of the Migrant fleet. I serve as one of the Normandy's head engineers on the deck just below this one.""

"Okay that answers half of my question. What are you then?"

"I'm a Quarian."

"Okay, that's a new one. What's with the suit?"

"Isn't it obvious, I can't breathe the air here. Have you been living under a rock or something?"

"You can say that."

"Mr. Anders has recently just re-emerged after being in cryostasis for over 170 years." Said a computerized voice.

"Thank you EDI."

"Who's EDI?" I asked.

"EDI is the ships AI, also she's our cyber warfare specialist." Tali explained to me.

"Hmm, a computer fighting other computers." I stated.

"That's one way of putting it." EDI said "I also act as co-pilot along side Normandy's Pilot, Flight Lieutenant Moreau."

"Good to know…uh…EDI." Trying to process more information that I could I got on the elevator and went to the deck marked the Combat Information Center.

The door opened up to a massive room within the ship. There were computers everywhere, everyone was busy. I tried to stay to the side and stay out of the way, but no luck, I kept bumping into people. In the middle of the room, there was a massive holographic display showing the layout of the ship. As awestruck as I was to see how far technology has advanced over the past century and a half, I couldn't admire it for long. Shepard came up from the crew deck and headed straight for the lady working the console to the right, Traynor I think her name was. Said she caught wind of a chance to take down a criminal organization the alliance have been hunting for years. I was tired of just sitting on my ass so I took the initiative.

"What can I do to help?" I asked the two of them.

"It's official alliance business, this does not concern you." Commander Shepard told me.

"Look, I've spent the past two weeks just sitting on my ass, which I've been doing for the past century. You want me to help out in whatever it is you're doing, then I gotta be of some use. You let me come along this time, and I'll be out of your hair as much as possible."

"Look, you'll only get in the way, besides what if things get messy."

"Actually I think we can use Seth on this one." Traynor said.

"Why's that?" Shepard asked her.

"Isn't it obvious, they don't know him."

"What's the plan?"

"The organization known as the Delta Syndicate holds a tournament every 5 years to find the best fighters in the galaxy. Mostly mercs, disgraced soldiers, and assassins enter it. The tournament itself is brutal, no rules, fights go on as long as they have to and end however they end, mostly knockouts, but in some cases people have died."

"And you want to send Seth in there? No way, we don't even know if he can fight."

"Don't judge a book by it's cover, Commander. Tell you what, punch up James, tell him to meet you in the shuttle bay. You might want to come and see for yourself."

"What are you doing, Seth?"

"You'll see."

A few minutes later, the commander and James came down to the shuttle bay.

"So what's this all about, Frio?" James asked.

"It's simple, a fight. There's a tournament going on, and I want to enter it so Shepard can take down this criminal syndicate, but since Shepard hasn't seen me in action. I figured now is as good a time as any."

"So why me?" He asked.

"Yet another simple answer. You're the biggest badass on the ship, I figured if I take you on and beat you, it'll be enough to convince the Commander to let me do this thing."

"Alright, but let's make this interesting. You win, you go. But if James wins, he goes. Deal?" Shepard declared.

"Sounds good to me." I said "So, tap or nap?"

"Either way sounds good" Said James.

A small crowd gathered around us. Some of them placing bets. We just stood there. Fists up, pretty much toe-to-toe. After a minute or to of sizing each other up, the jarhead went on the offensive with a left jab. It connected pretty hard for just a jab, but then again, the dude IS a marine. He followed it up with your basic 1-2 combo, but I managed to dodge it on the outside and deliver a left shin kick to his stomach. I clinched his head and went in to deliver some knee strikes, the first connected, but he caught the second one and took me down. I got him to a forward guard, but that didn't stop him from trying to rain down bombs on my face. Some of them got through, but I managed to block most of them. I caught the last one and worked him into a triangle. I was so hell bent on getting is that choke, he took a page out of the classic Jackson vs Arona fight back in Pride FC. The dude went for a Power Bomb. That was one of my favorite fights, too. So in order to avoid that. I released the hold as soon as my head got vertical again. And took him down with a hip toss. The crowd around us went NUTS to that reaction. I took side control and started kneeing him in the side as much as possible. I switched over to north-south and went in for another choke. He managed to roll out of it. Now this time, I'm on the bottom and he does the same thing. I manage to roll over AGAIN, but this time I go for rear side control, wrap my arm around his neck and go in for my favorite, the Rear naked Choke. He grabs my arm trying to get out, but I already have it in as deep as I can. To speed things up, I pull even more, putting strain on his stomach as well as limiting the flow of blood. He had no choice. He tapped my forearm and just like that, it was over.

After it all died down, I helped him up. He was breathing heavy with a few coughs here and there, but we were both physically exhausted.

"Impressive, who taught you that." The commander asked me.

"My father was a black belt in Shotokan and started training me when I was 7. As the years went on I picked a few techniques from other styles Boxing, Muay Thai, TKD, Wrestling. Then when I hit 16, I started training in MMA. Stuck with it ever since."

"I can see that. Alright, rest up, intel says the tournament starts in a week. I suggest you get training, that's an order." He said to me.

"I'm not military." I told him

"Then consider yourself drafted. Welcome to the Alliance Navy, Private Anders."

"Aye, sir."


End file.
